Tuesday, 29 May 2012

Wow is it only time for the Epic Spring 8? I love the Spring 8 it is one of my favourite races of the year. It marks the start of summer. But this year the weather has been so nice that it feels like the middle of summer already!

Adam the kids and I headed up to Mansfield the night before the race. It's kind of a tradition now to pick up Pizza Pizza on the way up to a Chico race. We set up the tent and went to bed early because Adam had a cold and everyone else was tired as well.

In the morning we got the pop up all ready with supplies for the race and had some breakfast.

Waiting for the start.

We had decided before the race that we would do double laps because it usually takes me 5km to really warm up so with the 10km laps it seemed best to do doubles. The course was really, really sandy even for Mansfield. The riding in Moab really helped hone my sand biking skills so I had no problem with the course Saturday. There were flowy, fun singletrack sections and I especially enjoyed the sandy downhill breaking ruts. For real, those were fun! Adam ended up doing 8 laps to my 7 and we came in 4th, 12 minutes behind 3rd place.

Ryan had fun at the kids race. Here he is at the start. I missed his race because I was on course but Adam got to watch. However Ryan wanted to show me the kids course so we did 2 laps of that together after the 8 Hour was done. He really likes his new water bottle and bell that he received when he finished his 2 laps. By the end of the day he was feeling pretty bad and he ended up throwing up 3 times on Sunday.

In mid February we received and e mail from friend of ours who live a few doors down from us about getting a group together to go down to the States for a week to do some MTB riding in Fruita and Moab. They had gone themselves the year before and had had a great time. Adam has always wanted to Moab he has many magazines in the bike shop entirely devoted to MTB riding in Moab. So after going back and forth in my head over if I would survive leaving the kids for a week and having to FLY down, I loath flying, we decided to go.

All packed up and ready to go! We flew into Denver on a Thursday night and stayed at a hotel near the airport where we set up the bikes. The next morning we picked up the rental car and headed up to Fort Collins for a ride and a New Belgium Brewery tour.

Even though we'd never met before Jason Trujillo a lab technician at New Belgium Brewery was kind enough to take us out to the local trails at Lory State park. Jason was a super nice guy and we had a great time with him. He started the Ciclismo Youth Foundation who's mission is to promote, advocate and create youth cycling opportunities in the community.

Mark Fisher, Senior Plant Engineer and brother in law to a friend of Adam's gave us a tour of the plant after the ride.

What a twirly side and foosball table at work! Are you hiring?

Oak casks for aging beer.

Jason recommended Restaurant 415 to us in Fort Collins for dinner. I had organic chocolate milk, Margherita pizza and a grilled chicken breast on the side. It was delicious!

We stopped in Silverthorne on route to Grand Junction. We just loved the Natural Grocers down there. We stocked up on groceries and had a picnic lunch before continuing on.

After we met up with the other 6 riders at the hotel in Grand Junction we got ready for the first ride with everyone.

Hans enjoying the view.

There were many, many stops to admire the view on this trip.

Hike a bike.

Sam, Anoushka and Shawn in the truck.

Stocking up on supplies.

Geoff.

A tree is a wonderful thing. Anytime we stopped I would immediately dash for the closest dwarf tree to hide under. The sun was unbelievably hot. A special thanks goes out to sunscreen manufacturers.

On the way from Fruita to Moab.

Slick Rock!

Hans enjoying the view.

Sam at the top of a climb.

The bruise from a big sand wipe out. The ends of my handlebar went right into my thigh. I had a golf ball sized lump in my leg I had to massage out for a month.

Mater!

We did Kokopelli, UPS, LPS and then Porcupine Rim right down into the campsite. We were camped right on the Colorado river.

We were down to 6 after Anoushka and Doug had to leave for home early.

Sam and Shawn awesome neighbours and friends!

Drinking some Fat Tire and enjoying the view.

Eating a late lunch at the Hot Tomato after riding the Western Rim before starting the long trek back to Denver. Adam and I got a Thai Me Up pizza and I enjoyed a Sunshine Wheat beer by New Belgium Brewery.